Cabbage Boiled

Ingredients

• cabbage (drumhead or green savoy)
• considerable salt
• drawn butter or butter

Method

Quarter the cabbage through the core and strip away any bruised or yellowed leaves. Rinse under cold water to dislodge grit — drumhead cabbage in particular traps soil between the leaves.

Fill a large pot with water and add salt generously: you want it to taste noticeably of salt, around 30g per litre. This isn't seasoning — it's osmotic pressure. boiling|The salt raises the water's boiling point marginally and, more usefully, prevents the cabbage's cell walls from collapsing entirely as heat penetrates. Bring to a rolling boil before adding the cabbage. A slack simmer won't give you the texture you need.

Drumhead cabbage — dense, pale, compact — requires the full hour. Green Savoy, with its looser, crinkled leaves and smaller head, is done in 20 minutes. The distinction matters. Savoy cabbage's thinner cell structure breaks down faster; drumhead is built to store and resists collapse. Test by piercing the thickest part with a knife tip. There should be resistance, but the blade should slide through without force. Overcooked cabbage releases sulphur compounds and turns into the watery, disagreeable thing the Victorians warned against. The flavour flattens too.

Drain in a colander, pressing gently with the back of a spoon to release trapped water — don't pulp it. While the cabbage is still hot, dress it generously with drawn butter. Drawn butter (clarified butter heated until the milk solids separate and can be poured off clear) coats the leaves better than whole butter and has a cleaner, more neutral flavour that lets the mild sweetness of the vegetables|cabbage speak. If you have only standard butter, melt it slowly and pour off the clear fat, leaving the sediment behind; the result is almost identical.

Serve at once. The cabbage should taste of itself — faintly sweet, tender without collapsing — with the butter providing richness and a whisper of nuttiness where the milk solids have caramelised during clarification.